The present invention relates generally to improvements in oil field equipment and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to apparatus emplaced near oil wells for processing fluids produced by the wells.
The fluids produced by an oil well generally consist of a mixture of natural gas, petroleum and salt water which must be separated into separate components for disposition. For this purpose, it is standard practice to emplace a fluid processing system at the site of the well to initially separate off the gaseous component for transmittal to a pipeline and, subsequently, to separate the liquid component into petroleum and water for storage in a tank battery emplaced at the well site. The oil can then be sold directly from tanks of the battery and the salt water can be temporarily stored for later removal and final disposition in a manner that will not cause harm to the environment.
The emplacement of a fluid processing system at a well has, in the past, entailed considerable expense. Elements of the processing system are large and must be transported to the site of the well over highways that are often crossed by overpasses having limited clearance. Because of this, it has been standard practice to transport the elements of the fluid processing system separately for assembly at the well site.
This mode of establishing a fluid processing system at a well is both expensive and time consuming. Once the components of the system have reached the well site, they must be unloaded from transporting vehicles, positioned, and connected together and to the well. The connection of the components of prior art systems includes the incorporation in connecting pipes of fluid control devices so that a large number of pipes must be cut, threaded and connected to place the system in a condition in which it can be used to separate well fluids. Because of this need to plumb and connect components of conventional fluid processing systems in the field, it has not been uncommon in the past for the assembly of the system to take several days using a work force that may number four or five people. Thus, labor costs associated with preparing a well for production after the well has been drilled have not been inconsequential.
Moreover, it has often occurred in the past that the expense of preparing a well for production is not only wasted but is incurred twice without being offset by production of oil from the well. At the time a well is completed, it is not known whether the well will produce gas and oil in quantities that will justify the expense of maintaining the well in production. If not, the well is shut down and the system for processing the fluids must be disassembled, again taking several days using a work force of four or five people, for removal from the well site. While the major components of the fluid processing system can be salvaged, all of the labor that has gone into the assembly of the processing system at the well will have been lost and additional losses are incurred in disassembling the system and preparing the components of the system for transport from the site.